The Rizla Suzuki team have been fighting against a lack
of top end speed since the season began, with the cavalry of a new engine promised in time for this weekend’s race in
Spain to make up the deficit. The long straight at Catalunya is one at which any discrepancies in power soon get found out,
but the Suzuki team may postpone their use of the upgraded motor until the permitted Monday test session, which happens to
be following the race.
“We are hoping that the upgrades from Suzuki this weekend
will work as well on the bike as they have in the factory, we're not sure if we'll use them in the race or hang on
for the test day, we'll just have to wait and see,” said Australian rider Chris Vermeulen.
Italian teammate Loris Capirossi almost got on the podium last time
out in Mugello, and it would appear he is determined to run the new engine at the upcoming round.
Capirossi
was the unofficial holder of the MotoGP top speed record with a 990cc Ducati at the Circuit de Catalunya before the last event
where Dani Pedrosa’s phenomenal burst of speed.
Loris Capirossi had this to say “We know we will have to work hard on the long straight at Barcelona, but we learnt
a lot from the last race and hopefully that will help us this weekend. We have got some new parts coming from Japan which
should make a difference to the performance of the GSV-R so we are all quite excited about that.”
The Suzuki team has been testing out the engine since both riders made
a request for more speed in preseason, but the Suzuki team until now the motor has only been tested in laboratory conditions.
